Chuck Vs Nerd's Paradise
by OnkelJo
Summary: After a mission gone wrong, the three remaining members of Team Bartowski are thrown into a world where their strongest ally comes from where they would suspect it the least... / Post-S5. Eventually renewed Charah and other canon pairings. Reunion with many characters, introduction of two OCs.
1. Chapter 1

**SUMMARY: Chuck Bartowski, not-quite-retired master spy, goes on a mission to kill… and gets thrown in an absurd world he needs to escape from in order to survive; but he wouldn't be Chuck if he'd take the straight way out, would he? Brace yourselves for a rollercoaster ride full of fun and adorable nerdiness, and familiar encounters...**

* * *

**A/N: After careful consideration, I decided to declare this a pure Chuck fic and not a crossover, although the scenario is somewhat borrowed... but in a way (I think) the fellow reader (eg. you) may not know from where. If you can bring sound reasons why I should change that, you're welcome to convince me.**

**Originally I planned on writing this story completely before starting to upload it… but I was so frakkin' giddy, I just couldn't wait. As a result, this is sort of "fresh off the press", aka published without any betas, but more to that later. **

**For now, enjoy the first part of the ride!**

* * *

**Chapter 1 - Aftermath**

"The target just entered the building! Repeat, tango confirmed!" Sarah's voice whispered through Chuck's ear piece.

"Copy! Let's take the bastard down for good this time." he replied.

"Amen to that, bro."

Chuck and Sarah both smiled when they heard Morgan's voice from in the van. The little bearded man was like a little brother to them. Who got into trouble more often than not; just like Chuck in his early Intersect years.

It had been five long years, since the Intersect, and Sarah, had turned his life upside down. He went rogue with Sarah, married her, almost lost her because a crazy ex spy made her lose all her memory of the existence of Team Bartowski, and he kissed her again, which was really awesome but unfortunately didn't bring her memory back.

They joined the NSA together, because they were still one hell of a spy team, even though they currently weren't a couple (yet, according to Chuck). The NSA knew that, which was why they even got their old positions back, working directly for General Beckman. Without Casey, that is. The grumpy patriot was still AWOL, which was semi-officially covered by Beckman as a Black Ops mission to retrieve Gertrude Verbanski. The seemingly stone cold redhead had a heart after all.

The job had its perks, like being on this mission. This special assassination target had really been a pain in the ass of Team Bartowski for far too long. Captured by Team Bartowski over a year ago, the target managed to escape from a high-security prison recently; Beckman had had enough; the team now had an order to kill. Chuck still was uncomfortable with killing and only used tranq darts or hand-to-hand combat, and Sarah liked this character trait. Besides, she was more than deadly enough for both of them.

But not today. Chuck had his gun loaded with live ammunition. He'd still use tranq darts for the guards, but the live ammo was meant for a special villain. Chuck had thought about engraving his target's name into his bullets, but his inner nerd lost this battle.

Now it was time for action. Chuck checked his wrist computer to confirm Sarah's location at the other side of the building and whispered the signal in his mic. The red dot on the display that was Sarah immediately started moving swiftly to the entry, where she stopped, waiting for Chuck.

Chuck did the same on his side, the tranq pistol drawn. He placed a black box on the biometrical scanner and held Yori, Orion's wrist computer, near it. Numbers and rows of code filled the screen, as the trojan he had written uploaded itself via the scanner into the security system. Once the upload was completed, he had access to the whole alarm system.

He mirrored the cameras and looped them, then he cut off the door alarms from the main system, and then, finally, opened the doors for Sarah.

"Ladies first", he whispered smiling.

"Chuck, focus." Sarah sounded serious, but he knew her long enough to know that she was trying hard not to smile.

Just as he wanted to open the door for himself it opened, and a guard emerged. Both were surprised, both drew their weapons. The guard raised his MP5 – Chuck flashed. It was too close for the tranq gun, so he dropped it, and before the guard could even try to fire his silenced weapon, which was futile in such close quarters, Chuck already brought down a vicious roundhouse kick onto the guard's head who was rendered unconscious and fell back into the building.

Before Sarah could ask, he already radioed. "Enemy contact neutralized."

He grabbed the tranq gun and entered the building, shooting the guard with a dart, just to be sure. The tranquilizer would knock him out for at least twelve hours. Chuck worked his way through the hallways without any further surprises, thanks to Orion's wrist computer. He only encountered five more guards on his way, each of them tranquilized with a single dart before they had even known that he was there. He checked Yori for Sarah's dot.

"Person of interest around the corner, Sarah."

Sarah stopped at the corner and listened. Silence. The other person probably stood still. She got out her pen camera to look around, but she didn't get to use it. The other person rounded the corner ninja-fast, grabbed her – and stole a kiss.

"_Chuck!_" she hissed.

He grinned sheepishly.

"I couldn't resist. The chance was just too perfect."

Her anger was audible, but Chuck knew it was only half the truth.

"You're trained to withstand torture; why couldn't you resist me?"

He smirked. "What can I say? I'm smitten."

Sarah sighed, and a hint of a smile played around her mouth. "We obviously were in love, and I see why former me fell for you."

Chuck beamed on this information, and she reddened slightly, realizing that she let slip something out that she wanted to keep for herself. For now. She coughed once before she continued.

"_But _this is obviously neither time nor place to talk about this. We have a head to put our bullets through. You know the target; we will get killed if we let our guard down. Your action was reckless. Sweet, but reckless. You endangered us both, and probably Morgan, too."

He gave her his patented, ear-to-ear Bartowski grin.

"You think it was sweet?"

She rolled her eyes, barely able to contain her smile or the urge to bite her lower lip, which was her usual reaction to his grin lately. _Former me was smart not to let this man go._

"This is what you got from what I said? Focus, Chuck."

They were now in front of the main chamber. No entry was visible, neither were cameras and scanner devices. Yori didn't come through, either; it obviously had a separate security system. The old-fashioned way to go in it was, then.

The two spies exchanged looks, nodded, and began to work with a creepy simultaneity. Once the sticky mines were placed, they twisted them to activate the timer and took a few steps back. As the countdown reached the last seconds, they started running, guns drawn.

The mines were focused inwards, so most of the guards in the main chamber didn't get to see the stunning spy team leaping into the room, as they were knocked out cold by debris first. The few remaining were tranquilized too fast to realize what was going on.

They secured the poorly lit, concrete-walled room, but their target wasn't there. Suddenly, someone applauded behind them, clapping his hands slowly, thoughtfully. They spun around with their guns drawn, only to get knocked off their feet and smashed into the ground.

The last thing they saw before they passed out was the smiling face of their target... Daniel Shaw.

* * *

**A/N: You figured that one out before that, right? Anyhow, I'm not a big fan of cliff hangers… unless I can write them myself… te hee… So yeah, Sarah and Chuck in the dirty hands of our beloved hated villain Daniel Shaw… It is so much fun writing this story; I just for the love of Tron can't get a beta :O (btw, did you catch the reference?). If you took pity on me wailing for a beta and/or actually like the story to an extent where you wouldn't consider beta-ing it a torture… yeah, that'd be great.**

**I just have to warn you, dear reader, this story has a really shitty update schedule… called "whenever the muse strikes". If someone has followed my other story, you know what I mean. I'm an IT student at a university of applied sciences (no wonder I like Chuck so much :D), so yeah, free time is a bitch to find. And now the author's note has a higher rating than the story :D**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Maybe I wasn't straight forward last chapter... I NEED A BETA! :D Just leave a message or a review if you're up for it.  
**

**Rest assured, I don't like Shaw either. That's why I chose him. At least partially. And don't worry about Sarah OOC in this chapter, I have an ace up my sleeve that will explain all of it ;) About Chuck OOC... I suggest "Demons run when a good man goes to war" pretty much nails it (Read the awesome story "A good man goes to war" where this quote is from if you haven't already. After you finish here, of course. Please?).**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

"Aaaaah!" Chuck cried out as he rolled out of the bed and hit the floor hard.

_Just a bad dream, _he assured himself. Daniel Shaw was safely behind bars, and he couldn't hurt him or Sarah. Ever again. This guy was like the evil version of Superman. You just couldn't get him dead.

When he stood up, he rubbed his head where he had hit the floor. He walked into the kitchen to make coffee. Sarah should be awake soon. He frowned when he saw two dirty mugs already lying in the sink.

_Did we forget to rinse them yesterday? _he wondered silently, but dismissed the idea soon. Sarah wasn't really a housewife, but she had a strangely-close-to-Ellie sense of order which had to be a remnant from her life as a spy "on the move".

Chuck went to her bedroom and knocked softly on her door. When he got no reaction, he opened the door and froze on the spot.

Sarah wasn't alone.

A man squirmed under the weight of the beautiful blonde and shoved her nude body softly down from him before sitting up in Sarah's bed, smirking at Chuck.

"Hey, Chuck. Missed me?", said the smug voice of one supermanly asshole named Daniel Shaw, covered only by Sarah's sheets.

"Wha… Sarah? _What the hell _is going on here?" The anger boiled up in his body. Then it clicked in Chuck's mind. _We were on a mission to kill Shaw and we were taken. _He wasn't sure why he was standing in their apartment in Echo Park, but it sure wasn't the real one.

"Chuck, stop whining like a little baby and go away…" the blonde spy groaned into the blankets. "Don't you see I'm busy?"

This was definitely not the Sarah he knew. There was no way in hell Sarah would act like this. He wanted to shake her out of her trance, considering what a sneaky bastard Shaw was, surely drug-induced, but while she was under Shaw's influence he doubted he could come through to her.

Sarah was not an option right now, which left him with Shaw. He knew he could take him on in a fight (thanks to the Intersect - again), but he didn't want to risk anything while Sarah was so close by. He knew she was more than capable to defend herself; but he wasn't too eager to find out how she would react while drugged. As long as he didn't know what was going on with Sarah, he wouldn't risk being attacked by a beautiful but mindless thrall of Shaw's.

_No physical attacks. Don't involve Sarah. Got it._

"Busy? With Daniel Shaw? Convicted traitor who tried to kill you because you offed his wife?" Chuck scoffed, more to Shaw than to her. "Yeah, I don't think so."

Sarah didn't seem to notice Shaw's grinding teeth. Chuck did. He took the same line again.

"I can't believe you'd want anything to do with your wife's killer. Besides, she doesn't look anything like Eve, don't you think?" Sarah sat silently and indifferent on her side of the bed during the whole exchange. He didn't know what had gotten into her, but for now he settled for provoking Shaw.

"Shut up!" Shaw said through gritted teeth. Chuck chose to ignore him.

"Maybe blondes are more your type. I don't know, maybe you are even grateful. Divorces are always messy. Well, not that her idea of a 'divorce' was any less messy."

Shaw was clenching his fists and Chuck could see that it would only take a little more before he would snap. Not that he knew what good it would exactly do to provoke him, but the outlines of a plan began to form. This was way out of his depth anyway, so he didn't mind that he had no idea where this was going. He really did take wicked pleasure in pissing off Shaw, so he went along with it.

"I told you to shut up!" Shaw snarled and finally got out of the bed.

"What the frak! Would you please put something over your… lower body?!" Chuck said with eyes wide in shock, motioning towards the mentioned body parts and turning away his gaze. "But hey, now I think Eve might be at a better place now. I wonder if they offer pleasure in hell." he snarled. Okay, these were some low punches, and _so _not Chuck's style, but normally he didn't find the love of his life in bed with his arch-enemy either. Shaw really did brought out the worst in Chuck.

_Click._

The unmistakable sound of a cocked gun made Chuck snap his head back to face Shaw who now held a 10 mm Smith & Wesson in his hand. _Where did that come from? _Chuck thought while he raised his hands.

"Okay, since you're naked, I don't really wanna know where this gun came from… but seriously, where did that gun came from?!"

Shaw smirked. "Gotcha."

Then Chuck saw a flicker running over the gun, like an old screen. _Could it be a hologram?, _Chuck wondered, but he pushed this thought aside. Gun or not, this guy was in for a rough treatment.

The gun was a good arm's length away, not quite in reach for a normal grab. Unless…

Chuck leaped forward, slightly tilting to the side to get out of the line of fire, and tried to grab the gun. It was a good, thought-through move, even solidly executed. It would've been successful - if Shaw would've still stood where he was when Chuck got there.

Chuck's hand grabbed only air and he barely managed not to stumble.

"Nuh-uh…", said Shaw - behind him.

Once again his head snapped around to look at Shaw. _How did he get there so fast?_

"I should've known this wouldn't deceive you for long."

_What was he talking about? What was going on?_

"You see, I wouldn't have minded so much a life in prison. If it weren't you geek and your bitch who happens to be my wife's murderer who brought me in." _Sarah's not a bitch and it's NERD, not geek, you moron! _"You will certainly understand that my urge for vengeance was quite… tempting. You know, I was quite disappointed when I heard of Quinn's failure and death. I was certain my plan was flawless, but you just couldn't die!"

He paused a moment to snicker maniacally, just long enough for Chuck to let the information sink in. _He of all bad guys was behind Quinn?_

"Did you really think you could get away with what you did? What _both _of you did? I want to see you suffer, Chuck. You see, this isn't your vanilla nightmare. You can wake up when you have a nightmare. Here… _you don't._"

"What do you mean, I can't wake up? Did you drug me, Shaw? I swear to god, If you poked me with a needle…"

Shaw chuckled almost silently. "Don't worry. I did no such thing. Torturing you with needles would be fun for a while; but as soon as you would grow accustomed to our little playdates, it would become boring."

"Now you can as well just tell me." Chuck sneered.

Shaw clicked his tongue and smirked. "Now, now. Wouldn't want to ruin the surprise, would I? Let's just say… _I found a circuit that could hold you._"

* * *

**A/N: I feel like I have to adress the whole Charah turmoil, and I don't care if a longer Author's note messes up the word count a bit:**

**This is a fanfiction that takes place shortly after Season five. Therefore, Sarah has still amnesia. She is still married to Chuck but she can't remember ANY OF IT. This fic is no relationship setback. They still work together, which is something, considering that she's basically degraded to her old spy personality, and no one can withstand the Bartowski charm for long, we all know that. There will definitely be Charah in this fic. Eventually. With fluff, if you want.**

**I'm not a doctor, but given the information we get from the show how the Intersect works and how Quinn induced the**** memory loss**, it could very well be permanent. The forced overuse/abuse of her brain due to the Intersect Sarah had to endure could be compared to erasing your hard drive with a magnet.


	3. Chapter 3

**Still no beta :( I hope this chapter clears up a bit of confusion… and confuses you differently :)**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

_Shaw clicked his tongue and smirked. "Now, now. Wouldn't want to ruin the surprise, would I? Let's just say… I found a circuit that could hold you."_

"Oh, wow. A TRON quote. When did you become a geek?"

Shaw frowned on that remark. "I'm no such thing." He huffed indignantly.

He let the topic drop though, so Chuck tried to pry for information. "Now that this is out of the way, where am I again?"

Shaw just laughed in his face. "Your worst nightmare, of course. Did you think I'd settle for anything less?"

Chuck took in his surroundings, curiously looking around the room. "This is supposed to be my worst nightmare? Come on, even you, as simple minded as you are, should be able to do better than this. I mean, I nearly got lobotomized to get to the Intersect, I fought off a crazy scientist slash cheap Freddy Kruger ripoff who invented a friggin' nightmare drug and tested it on me, I had Intersects in my head that weren't too kindly… And you think a total unrealistic couple could be my worst nightmare? If this was a tv show, the channel would've canceled you after half a season at the most. Hell, even as a villain you would be annoying."

Shaw glared at him the whole time, but frankly, he didn't give a damn. Here he was in his own apartment after he was captured at the other side of the country, only to find his wife in bed with the most annoying bad guy they ever captured. That, plus the flickering gun and the Tron quote… he suddenly felt a bit ill and shut up.

After a few moments of sudden silence, Chuck found his voice again. "Am I trapped in a simulation?"

Shaw's grin gained a lot of smugness when he heard that question.

"Took you long enough, Bartowski."

"But, wha… how? Why a simulation?"

He just shrugged his shoulders before answering. "I guess I just wanted you to fail at something you're usually good at."

Chuck furrowed his brows. "That is hands down the single dumbest explanation from a villain I've ever heard." He crossed his arms and casually motioned towards his surroundings. "So… what kind of sim nightmare am I in for? Animus? Corrupt AI? Alien invasion?"

"Just plain and simple, a simulation of a city, nothing fancy. Although corrupting your bits and bytes could be fun… I just leave you alone for now with your bitch. Have fun!" He winked and waved goodbye before he vanished into thin air.

Chuck looked at the blonde beauty still lying on his bed.

"Who are you?" he asked her. It. He couldn't trust anyone in this simulation to be real. Who knew what Shaw had in store for him?

"I'm your Sarah, don't you remember?" she answered, smiling sweetly at him. But that couldn't faze Chuck at the moment. He knew better than that.

He snorted a bit. "Well, excuse me for being not so trusting, considering you, whoever you are, didn't stand above doing Shaw, whose wife you killed years ago."

She knitted her brows and pierced him with her blue eyes. _She's really laying it on thickly, _he thought, his resolve weakening. _Damn it, Chuck, get your big head in the game! _

"You know I only did that to get to you, Chuck, right?", she asked.

_Pun intended?,_ he thought acidly.

She looked down at her feet which were still covered by the sheets before speaking again, with a low voice. "Sometimes I had to do things I'm not proud of in my past. This time, it isn't any different. Okay, I hate the target more than usual, but the only thing I could think of was that it would get me to you, Chuck. That's the only reason I didn't break yet." Her voice broke.

He resisted the urge to rush to her side and to take her into his arms, comforting her.

"I'm sorry", he whispered. Louder, he added "How can I know you are who you claim to be?"

Her tears flowed freely now. "Test me, Chuck. I'll do anything to get my husband back."

He swallowed hard. It had been months since she last called him that.

"Okay, I'll ask you a couple of questions." She nodded in acceptance, rubbing her eyes to dry the tears.

"Where is the only place I'm ticklish?"

She chuckled softly with a watery voice. "You aren't - anymore. You managed to overcome it shortly after I started using it to interrogate you in bed."

He managed to hide the little blush that crept on his face. "Very well. Next question. When was the first time Casey used the phrase 'Chuck me!' in front of both of us?"

Her face darkened a bit on that question and looked at him sadly. "When you took out the goons that attacked you after you downloaded the Intersect 2.0."

"Fine. What is the queue image that appears when I flash on you?"

"A hummingbird. I like it." she answered with a tiny smirk..

"Well, it appears you knew all the answers…" She smiled, full of hope. "... but you aren't the real Sarah."

"WHAT?! How can you say that, Chuck? I answered all your questions! What more do you want? What is good enough for you? Tell me!" she yelled, tears of anger and disappointment already welling up again.

He only waved it aside, not bothered by the slightest. "Cut the crap, fake Sarah. I know you aren't real."

Her posture changed immediately. The anger was gone in an instant. Her shoulders sagged and she deflated on the bed.

When she answered, it wasn't much more than a hollow whisper, barely loud enough for Chuck to hear her.

"What gave it away?"

Now it was Chuck's turn to smirk. "Sarah would in fact know all these things… if she could remember any of it."

The blonde Sarah clone on the bed swore under her breath. "I can't believe I made such a rookie mistake." Chuck chuckled almost mirthlessly. She narrowed her eyes. "What's so funny?"

"Speaking of rookie mistakes: Did Shaw tell you how he was incriminated despite my whole team was locked up or on the run, having lost every bit of credibility?" She shook her head no, her curiosity peaked. "I waited for him in his office on an intelligence conference alone, all by myself. He thought I wouldn't walk out of there alive, so he made the most rookie mistake a villain could fall for."

"Which was?", she prompted.

"He told me his evil master plan.", he smirked, this time mischievously.

"Which compromised him how?" she wanted to know, annoyance rising in her voice.

Chuck sighed. "You still have much to learn, my young padawan. He didn't know I hooked up his laptop for a video conference, courtesy of the BuyMore by the way, transmitting his confession and his plan to take over the CIA via live feed to the whole assembled conference of high ranking spooks, compromising the identity of the Ring Elders in the process." he finished, now grinning broadly. Then he started to laugh as he thought about the memory. Fake Sarah joined him, but they both sobered up pretty quickly.

"What will you do with me?" she asked quietly.

Chuck rubbed the bridge of his nose. " I… I don't know. I don't even know what _options _I have. I don't know if I can trust you. For all I know, you're Shaw's deception to break me. I can't even tell if your emotions are genuine. What is real and what is not will definitely give me a headache later. While we're at it, what are you, exactly?"

He could see the hurt in her eyes after his question. "I'm an AI exclusively programmed for exactly this simulation. As long as Shaw isn't online, I'm at free will. I can think like a human, and, although I don't possess a body in the real world, I'd like to think of myself as one." _So that's the elephant._

"Why is your free will restricted to when Shaw's not online?" he wondered.

She laughed shortly, but she wasn't happy. "To be honest, it isn't. I just have to play this role while he's here so he doesn't 'pull the plug' on me, quite literally."

"Okay, then, _who _are you?"

Her eyes lit up in joy for a moment before answering. "Shaw had me 'programmed' to be like Sarah Walker… but you aren't fooled by that, and I never even wanted this identity. It was just business, nothing personal. I can't help it; I don't wanna die. Or disintegrate. Or whatever happens to virtual entities when they cease to exist."

_She looks genuinely sad, _Chuck thought.

"You said you're not under his will when he's not online. Who are you when he's not around?"

"Just a second…" she answered, looking to the side, obviously listening to someone from an ear piece. "It's secure, Shaw has now logged off and went to sleep." she said, tilting her head back to Chuck.

Chuck looked at her expectantly, but she motioned for him to turn around as she stood up from the bed, clutching the sheets to cover her body. "Give a woman some decency, Chuck!" she giggled. _Wow, these mood swings are crazy…_ He obliged though and turned around, waiting until he heard a soft chiming he interpreted as a ready signal. "Just so you know, this was nothing I haven't seen already. You decent yet?" he asked over his shoulder, just to be sure. "Yep!" came back the answer.

When he turned back around, quite a sight awaited him. The woman standing there beside the bed reminded Chuck a little bit of himself, _save for the 'obvious assets', _ he chuckled inwardly.

Her brown hair ended a few inches below her shoulders and her body could only be described as lanky. Even so, she was quite beautiful in her own way. Not runway model style like Sarah or Carina, but she would turn many male heads in real life anyway. Maybe even some female ones.

He took a closer look at her. Not a finger's breadth taller than five eight, her heels were almost non-existent, her clothes were pricy, but not too flashy. _Very uncommon combination for her age, _he thought. Her age was hard to guess, but she didn't look older than twenty-one.

"Quite a change, right?" she waggled with her eyebrows, catching him checking her out. He blushed of course.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that, it's..."

She frowned. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "It's nothing."

She crossed her arms and tapped with her foot. "Spill it, Bartowski!"

Seeing her _don't bullshit me _look, he reluctantly gave in. "It's just, you look a bit like a mix between my sister and me, without all the weird, disgusting stuff implied of course, and you just did what my friends have dubbed 'the infamous Bartowski eyebrow dance'. It's a little creepy, you know?" he offered sheepishly.

She laughed heartily. "I'm sorry to disappoint, but that's all me. No weird genetics at work. Seems as if my boyfriend just likes brunettes." she smirked.

"Boyfriend? How's that even possible?" Chuck asked with eyes as big as saucers which made her laugh.

"Don't worry, it's not a weird fetish or something, I promise." Then her face darkened. "But this story is not mine to tell."

* * *

**A/N: But it's mine to tell, muahahahaah... wait, what?**

**Oh, ye of little faith… everything will fall into place. Eventually ;) This chapter almost wrote itself, after Shaw finally made his disappearance (for now). :D These two ("fake Sarah" and her "boy toy") are my original characters, just so you know.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ta-Da! Seems as if the muse strikes weekly^^ actually it's more often, but I stall a bit so I can have 1) a regular update plan and 2) more time in case my muse is unwilling.**

**PARENTAL ADVISORY: Nerd Language! I tuned it down a bit (I'm an IT student, I was a bit carried away…), the leftovers shouldn't be too much for a Chuck fan. Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

She closed the distance between them and took his hand.

"Come on, I'll take you to him." she said and started to pull him with her.

Chuck didn't budge. "How can I know if I should trust you?"

The AI turned around to face him. "You can't." she replied bluntly. "But I understand your caution. I deceived you before and I hurt you. I'm sorry for that. I never wanted to hurt anybody in any way, but you have to understand that I had no choice. It was either hurt you now and live, or let you get hurt later anyway and die for nothing."

Chuck nodded solemnly. "I understand. But trust is not logical, I'm afraid. Anyhow, I still think it would be best to start over."

She raised her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

He shook the hand that was still holding his. "Hi, I'm Charles Irving Bartowski, but my friends call me Chuck." he said with a slightly awkward smile.

She returned the gesture and the smile when she got over the initial surprise. "Nice to meet you… Chuck. I'm Kate. Just… Kate."

He broke into a whimsical grin. "The pleasure is all mine... Just Kate."

That earned him a punch on his arm, making him burst into fits of laughter. "Ow! Come on, you cannot seriously expect me to let such a perfectly good set up go to waste!" he said, still catching his breath between laughs and rubbing his arm where she had hit him.

"It wasn't even that funny. Or original." she said, but she couldn't hide her smile. "And don't you think I don't know that you only did this because you forgot to ask my name earlier."

He clutched his chest in mock hurt. "You wound me, woman. How low do you think I've sunken?"

"I'd rather not answer that" she quipped; but this playful attitude didn't last long.

She rose up to stand on her toes and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Chuck stopped laughing and froze on the spot like a deer in the headlights.

"What was that about?" he asked, flabbergasted.

"I wanted to thank you" she said with her eyes glistening, tears threatening to fall.

Chuck only furrowed his brows in confusion. "What for?"

"For addressing me as a woman. Thank you."

With that, she turned to go, hiding the tears that were slowly rolling down her cheeks.

"You're welcome" Chuck said under his breath, still perplexed by the sudden outburst by the brunette.

"Come on, we have to go. Who knows how long Shaw is out?"

She pressed a button on her watch which made a three-dimensional hologram appear. Chuck couldn't really discern what was presented; Kate's fingers sashayed with mesmerizing speed along the markings. Even he, with his notorious hacker skills, was impressed; both with her abilities and with the technology.

"Wow, this is so awesome!" he exclaimed, further examining the watch like a kid on the outside of a toy shop. Kate only grinned but didn't stop manipulating the hologram with her fingers until she was content with the outcome; then she suddenly shut down the hologram and grinned smugly.

"Everything's ready. If Shaw checks the logs, he won't find any odd socks."

He smiled on that expression. "What did you do?"

She shrugged and answered casually. "Oh, you know, I masked us as a security program. We'll have access to everything. Everyone trusts people in uniform - ain't any different here."

Chuck could only shake his head in wonder. "Stealthy, I like your thinking." he said, grinning. "So, where are we going, exactly?"

"Just a few minutes on the data highway."

"A _data highway_?" he asked with wide eyes.

Kate shrugged again."Yeah… it isn't in the real simulation though. We have to use backdoor entries for our journey, so you won't see the actual simulation right now. Are you ready to go, Chuck?"

He sighed exaggeratedly. "Do I have a choice?"

The brunette cocked an eyebrow at that. "Yeah, you do… but the other choices usually let you end up dead." The surprise Chuck felt when she started to talk ended in an eye roll when she stopped. "So… Come with me if you wanna live."

They walked out into the courtyard, where Kate activated her watch again. The hologram reappeared for mere seconds, then the world around them was engulfed in darkness. Chuck began to feel a little bit claustrophobic but calmed when she took his hand and guided him along a path that was dimly lit with a thin string of light on the ground.

He was still slightly uncomfortable. "Can't you teleport us? I mean, this is a sim, after all."

This just elicited an eye roll from his companion. "Well, duh. But then we could also trip every single alarm wire in the system and wake Shaw with a klaxon."

Chuck smiled sheepishly and zipped his mouth with his finger. "Shutting up over here." That made her laugh again.

"Don't worry, Chuck. We aren't walking much longer. In fact, we're already here."

She kneeled down and slit her arm with the watch into a hole in the ground. Chuck just asked himself what she was doing there when she already pulled it out and more light lines came to life and crawled through the void. The thin string they had been following glowed like a beacon now. Noticing his questioning look, she explained.

"I started a server wide ping. Every access node will respond to that. You can see the different queries right there." she said, motioning to the light lines. "This will explain for the extra traffic we're about to cause." she added with an evil grin.

Chuck gulped as she pushed another button. _Was I too trusting?, _he wondered. Against his fears, a futuristic vehicle materialized in front of them.

"What is _that_?" Chuck asked with wide eyes, but also grinning.

"I'm not too keen on bikes, so I got this baby here." she said, smiling and patting the glass top of the car affectionately. The whole car seemed to consist only of glass and light lines.

_Swoosh!_

The upper half of the chassis opened with a hiss and gave way to the two travelers. Kate vaulted into the driver's seat and turned to Chuck expectantly.

"What are you waiting for? Jump in, we don't have all day!"

Chuck obeyed, still dazed by the beautiful design of this… art piece. As soon as he was seated, the glass top closed again and Kate drove off.

The lines that were so clear and distinguished only moments ago became a blur when she put the foot down. Chuck enjoyed the panoramic view, completely forgetting about everything else.

His thoughts snapped back when he felt the car coming to a stop. A doorframe filled with bright white light illuminated their surroundings, making the vast darkness they've been in seem narrow and small.

"We're here" she said.

The top swooshed upwards again, allowing the two occupants to climb out.

"Are we supposed to go through this?" he gulped when he was out.

"Most definitely." she replied with a raised eyebrow, now standing at his side.

"Trust me to get thrown in a world where my claustrophobia has no effect at all" he mumbled sarcastically; it was accidentally loud enough for her to hear and to make her chuckle. Kate grabbed his arm and before he could protest pulled him with her into the portal…

He yelped as he was suddenly yanked forward. A short flash of white, and he was tumbling into a bleak hall. As soon as she had steadied him, he tried to orientate himself. Most of the large room seemed empty and unused, but this wasn't an ordinary warehouse. What stood out the most were the large power cables snaking around the place and the warmly lit room in the back where all the cables led to.

He pointed to the room. "Is that it?"

"Yep. Come on."

She let go of his hand to head for the door and he followed suit.

She knocked gently on the door frame.

* * *

**And here you go! :D Don't worry, the other OC comes next chapter (finally!), and you won't have to wait much longer for the rest of the team either… or you'll get to know what's going on with them, at least. I haven't decided yet :P And don't forget, reviews are better than coffee for me :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**As some of you reviewed as guests, I was unable to write back. You can find answers to some of your questions below the chapter.**

**I feel like the characters are a bit jumpy with their moods; I hope you don't mind too terribly, because I popped in a chunk of explanations in this chapter! I considered saving that for the next chapter and give you 600 words plus a cliffhanger, but I'm only evil, not unnecessarily cruel ;)**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

"Phil? I'm back and got company."

"Company? Very nice, indeed! Come on in, come on in. Take a seat, grab a drink, make yourself comfy. I'll be with you in a sec! Kate, my dear, could you show him where to find everything, please? Thank you" shouted a male voice from the back of what turned out to be a full apartment.

Kate complied with a grin and a head shake, motioning to a big couch.

"Make yourself at home, Chuck." she said, walking over to the fridge. "You want a drink?"

"Soda would be nice."

"What, no schnapps?" she quipped.

"I'm saving that for later. I might need it." he snorted.

She chuckled and threw him a can which he caught in midair.

He examined the beverage in his hands. "Grape soda?! Wow, I didn't think I'd get one here."

"You like that stuff, too? I don't get how someone could possibly drink that." Kate scoffed.

The man who had welcomed them entered the room. "Quite easily, Kate. You open the can, pour it in your mouth and swall - ow!" exclaimed as Kate hit him on the arm, making both Kate and Chuck laugh.

Chuck took in the appearance of the man before him. His sturdy build reminded him a bit of John Casey - only a bit shrunken; He was barely taller than Kate, maybe half an inch. Phil had a bit more body fat than his missing teammate, but Chuck had no doubt about this man's strength.

His face however was nothing like John Casey's; it had some kind of… nerdy softness. With a little butt chin, a somewhat messy part in his hair and nerd glasses, he looked like he should be at a university instead of in the spy business. _Just like me back then, _Chuck thought.

Phil extended his hand. "Hi, I'm Phil. Nice to meet you!"

_Again no surnames, _Chuck thought as he shook Phil's hand. "The pleasure's all mine, Phil. I'm Chuck. Chuck Bartowski."

Phil had to do a double take. "_The _Chuck Bartowski? Engineering at Stanford University?"

Chuck eyed him suspiciously. "Yeah… Why?"

"You don't know?" the man before him asked incredulously. Chuck began to feel irritated and just shook his head no.

"I was at Stanford, too. Class of '07. You're a freaking legend for us engineers. The 'Bartowski Special' was amazing coding."

Phil was definitely fanboying over Chuck. He wasn't used to this kind of attention and it made him feel a bit uncomfortable, to be honest. But from one nerd to another, getting praise for your work always felt good. There was only a tiny little problem.

"Wait, you cracked the Bartowski Special? That's impossible!"

Phil only shrugged his shoulders. "Well, in theory it is, yeah. I think I was the only one, though. And don't worry, I didn't boast around about it. But I was fascinated with it, so I sacrificed an old laptop to infect it deliberately and reverse-engineered your virus from this. Plus I could salvage code fragments from the hard drive."

"Okay, that _is _pretty amazing." Chuck was genuinely impressed. His masterpiece virus was supposed to be uncrackable; he hadn't thought of Phil's solution, which should be impossible anyway.

"I'm sorry to break up this little reunion, but there are a few pressing matters on our plate. We should get going." Kate spoke up again.

"You're right." - "I don't think so." Chuck and Phil spoke simultaneously.

"Wait, what?" Kate asked with her mouth wide agape.

"We can't do anything right now. At least nothing with a success rate higher than even twenty-five percent. The calculations were finished while you were gone."

"But what about my partners? I can't just sit here and do nothing while Shaw does god knows what with them!" Chuck said agitated.

"Calm down! You know barely anything about us, other than our names. If we did an op right now, we would be doomed to fail because you cannot trust us. Yet. Besides, Shaw won't kill them; none of you are supposed to die yet. Now you sit down right here and listen to our story."

He tried to protest, but Phil pushed Chuck back in his seat.

"You will soon understand why, Chuck. You need to know why we want to help you and how I ended up here. And then I'd like to know how such a promising engineer like yourself got mixed up in this godforsaken mess, because I only know what Shaw entered into the sim; you will understand our scepticism." he added dryly, eliciting a snort from Chuck.

"But I digress. Our story begins about five years ago in oh-seven, shortly after I graduated from Stanford in Engineering. I had just married my girlfriend Kate and we wanted to become a family soon."

He held up his hand to mute Chuck who had already thrown a questioning look at the woman next to him. "All in due time, my friend. Please hold back your questions until the end of the story; I'm sure most of them will be answered by then."

Chuck closed his mouth and motioned for him to continue.

"I had founded my own software company. We were only a few, but our work in the field of artificial intelligence was groundbreaking. It enabled us to extrapolate personalities and whole persons from both non-digital and digital data. The more data, the more accurate the simulation. Some of the calculations necessary were a bit complicated. Twentyfour dimensions with complex coordinates isn't something you normally work with in your head. At least I don't hope so, because that would definitely suck."

After getting a pointed look from Kate he blushed a bit. "And I'm rambling again, which is bad. Sorry for getting carried away there. Well anyhow, the possibilities were endless. Imagine it like discussing computer science with Einstein or Euler. Awesome, right? I was on the best way to revolutionize the AI business, when suddenly Ted Roark approached me."

Chuck's face darkened when he heard this name.

Phil shrugged. "I know, I know; but back then, I didn't. He was the head of RI, _the _big fish in the pond. His financial power was virtually infinite, and more funding was exactly what I needed. Young and stupid as I was, in hope of more funding, I sold my company to Roark, who gutted and exploited it instead, until nothing but our patents was left. My dreams were crushed, but I continued to work for him on some low-level software. When he died and his company was shattered, I thought I could get back into the game. Everything went fine for the first few months. But then, it changed. Dramatically."

He paused. "Because that was when I met Daniel Shaw."

* * *

_~~~~~Flashback~~~~~_

Shaw had gotten me a new job, I was happily married to a beautiful woman, everything was great. I didn't know what they had planned using my simulation for. I was just relieved that at least _someone _had taken an interest in my services. It helped that Shaw had bought the patents Roark had taken out of my company. I was finally working again in the field I studied for.

One day, on my way to my office, I overheard a conversation in the break room that made me stop in my tracks.

"This Carmichael character will get a heck of a surprise when he gets here. I've heard the longest a man has withstood the sim was thirty-six hours, and he knew what he was getting into."

"I can't imagine what this technology will be worth when its functionality will be proved on _the _human inters…mmmhfpf!"

"Don't you dare take that word in your mouth! It's not even confirmed that he really has this… _thing_. For all we know, Larkin was the last one to be the carrier for it, and he seems to have died with the 2.0 not too long ago, so don't get too excited."

"Yeah, you're right. Sorry. But imagine the possibilities, especially scientifically! A computer inside a simulation inside another computer, the results could be groundbreaking!"

"Sure, like those creepy russian 'doll-in-a-doll' things. Maybe they will make a movie out of this some day. Get real, Tom. None of this will ever get published. This is top secret stuff."

"Geez, you sure know how to dampen the mood, Jerry."

_Oh, boy._

I rushed to my office. While the computer booted, I made sure my office was shielded from views from outside. Whatever was going on, it couldn't be good.

When I had logged in, I opened up my search algorithm. I needed to know more, so I punched in both the names I learned while accidently eavesdropping.

_Carmichael _and _Larkin_.

The few hits it found were disappointing. The parameters were good. The names were no problem. They just didn't appear together. After extending my search, I got a promising hit on at least one of the names. An accountant named Larkin seemed to have fallen victim to a violent felony recently.

Given that they said this was top secret, it would be no surprise if this Larkin fellow wasn't an accountant.

_But it makes no sense, _I thought. This was a simple, straightforward business. Why would there be top secret stuff in the company? We did no work for the government.

I couldn't put it together, so I shoved the thought aside. Later this day, I made my way to the cafeteria. I paid for my meal and took a seat where I'd be mostly all by myself. I didn't really eat, I rather pushed the food around. I only looked up when someone put down his tray, the cutlery clattering.

Daniel Shaw sat down across the table and gave me a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "So, Phil… I heard you're interested in someone named Carmichael and Larkin?"

* * *

**Dun Dun Dun… What will happen with Phil? What evil has Shaw planned for him? The answers you crave for will be given in the next chapter :D Did I mention that I'm evil? :)**

**joanna: Sarah will come, rest assured. However, I'm telling this story (mainly) from Chuck's point of view; for now they are apart, so whatever I've planned for Sarah would be for nothing if I brought her back now. Let's just say, Sarah lacks the IT background to escape on her own…**

**guest: For now, I haven't planned to let "a combination between Chuck and Ellie" go somewhere (important). Like the Casey comparison in this chapter, the description is merely a cheap way to make the characters easily picturable ;) :D Plus, I thought it to be fun later :P**

**guest (& uplink2): It never hurts to rewatch Tron, but the story will move in a slightly different direction, weaving in story elements from another "simulation". Minus aliens. :D**

**Please review, your kind words fuel my writing inspiration :)**


End file.
